The roots of social justice run deep--right back to the Bible. Now, in Informing the Future, scripture scholar, writer and teacher Joseph Grassi takes readers back to the New Testament to explore the place of social justice--the just distribution of economic, social and cultural resources to all people--as envisioned and practiced in it. It is there, the author demonstrates, that we will find the inspiration that challenges us, sustains us and brings hope to our world today.

 

Amazon reader review: In the preface to this new edition of Broken Break and Broke Bodies, Grassi speaks for the many when he asks what one person can do about the suffering of more than 15 million people who die of starvation each year. The answer, he says, begins with a deeper understanding and participation in the Eucharist to help mobilize effective individual and community action.

To that end, he devotes Part 1 of the book to a survey of pertinent social, economic, political, and religious forces at work in Israel at the time of Jesus' life. It also focuses on Jesus' commands about discipleship and examines the relationship between discipleship and the central theme of Jesus' life, service to the poor, the hungry, the oppressed

In addition, Grassi suggests that meaningful celebration of the Eucharist can lead to the "political and social action necessary to eliminate poverty and oppression, the root causes of world hunger." Part 2 examines how the Eucharist is meant to continue and expand Jesus' mission of human liberation and emphasizes the nature of the Eucharistic meal as one of sharing with the hungry and poor.

 

 

 

In Peace on Earth Joseph Grassi emphasizes the practical means Jesus suggests to make peace a reality. He focuses on the roots of peace and justice found in the nonviolent and compassionate life and teachings of Jesus.

 

Grassi teaches that Luke’s summary of Jesus’ teaching in the "Sermon on the Plain" has a central place as a practical guide for believers to develop a life of peace and nonviolence in imitation of Jesus as a nonviolent Messiah. Luke’s Jesus goes to the roots of true peace through the practice of nonviolence, love, compassionate justice, true repentance, and forgiveness. External power and domination are renounced and replaced by inner power, humble service, and a priority for the needs of the poor and marginalized.

 

Amazon reader review: One thing this book makes clear is that although the socio-political names change, the game remains the same. GK takes a hard look at what's wrong with England in 1910, and his diagnosis works just as well for America in 2003. GK rails against capitalism and socialism, for both philosophies are equally dehumanizing-capitalism excuses inhumanity as a cost of doing business; socialism seeks to redefine humanity by stripping away from us all that is human. Politicians, thinkers, and civic leaders on both ends of the spectrum flail away at social problems by attacking symptoms-poverty, homelessness, the role of women in society, disintegration of the family, unfruitful education-but consistently make the symptoms worse because they never see the underlying problem.

 

What is the underlying problem? It is that our leaders no longer put the individual, which is human and therefore sacred, above the social organization, which is merely artificial and expendable. By dismissing the laws of God, we have nothing left but an anarchy of ideas. We have replaced one law of God with a thousand laws of social theory. GK shows how such an unfocused and confused approach has steadily worsened the plight of the poor, the family, the publicly educated man, etc., and predicts that Western social fabric will only unravel further, as long as we keep this up. Unfortunately for us, we have, and GK's predictions are correct.

In this small book Walter Wink offers a précis of his whole thinking about this issue, including the relation of Jesus and his message to politics and nonviolence, the history of nonviolent efforts, and how nonviolence can win the day when others don't hesitate to resort to violence or terror to achieve their aims.

 

 

"Perhaps we are not accustomed to thinking of the Pentagon, or the Chrysler Corporation, or the Mafia as having a spirituality, but they do," writes Walter Wink. In The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, Wink returns to the ancient view of a world filled with angels and demons, powers and principalities, and reinterprets these notions for contemporary people. Wink's book is a challenge for Christians to wake up and become dangerously different, by objecting to the Darwinian games of domination that prevail in many of our governments, corporations, and churches. The book also offers stunningly gracious comfort, by showing that we are all caught up in this game, that the game is even a part of our gift, and that as long as we live in the world, not a single one of us can be pure, but we're called, all of us, to be holy.

Amazon reader review: When I started this book I was disappointed, but I wasn't when I finished. The first section is a series of word studies on Greek words associated with the powers. The second section consists of expositions of troublesome passages dealing with spiritual powers. I found these sections useful, but rather dry. The third section was a surprise, which caused me to think more highly of the book. Wink takes the language of power in the New Testament and casts it in contemporary language. Now power is not seen as something that is out there in the heavens. It is not something that is primarily referring to disembodied ghouls that ought to give Christians nightmares. Instead, it is found in the material reality of bodies interacting in complex systems that can influence and control others. Wink sees that the language of the New Testament is profoundly true, yet at the same time myth. It is myth that represents an all too real situation. The great value I have found in the book is that it gives us a way to speak about power that makes it more than simply the sum of our social systems, yet is not "spiritual" in a way that gives postmodern thinkers fits. Wink makes it clear that evil is real and even gives some ways to confront it in our world.